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Editorial

According to the United Nations' World Tourism Organization, there were an estimated
880 million international travelers in 2009, or roughly 13% of the world's population
[1,2]. While tobacco remains one of the world's leading causes of preventable disease and
death, prompting numerous governments around the world to implement policies to protect
the public's health, many international airports remain exempt from tobacco control
restrictions. Tobacco advertising and tobacco sales are largely unregulated in many
international airports, exposing hundreds of millions of travelers each year to the
tobacco industry's influence. Consequently, airports may represent one of the last
remaining havens for the tobacco industry.

National and international tobacco regulations (such as article 13 of the FCTC) have
been promoted to prevent the tobacco industry from communicating with youth and other
susceptible populations [3]. Despite the existence of such regulations, indoor tobacco billboards (Figure 1, Figure 2), industry-sponsored smoking rooms (Figure 3, Figure 4), and point of purchase advertising (Figure 5, Figure 6) are found within airports throughout the world, including those located within jurisdictions
with tobacco advertising restrictions in place.

Figure 1.Indoor billboard advertising after passport control in Athens airport.

Presented in vivid, colorful displays portraying brand names, themes, and logos (Figure
7), and often promoted by both salepersons and through promotional paraphernalia, airport
point of sale advertising may stimulate tobacco purchases. Indeed, research has indicated
that point of sale advertising has an impact on impulse purchases among current smokers,
and recent quitters, with those more sensitive to such advertising less likely to
remain abstinent [4-6]. When combined with the reduced price of tobacco products within airports, one can
conceive the synergistic effect of reduced price and plethoric advertising which could
facilitate impulse purchases, smoking relapse and circumvent one of the key aspects
of tobacco control, which is taxation and product price regulation [7].

Duty free sales undermine the purpose of taxation and harms public health by encouraging
personal consumption. Research from a number of countries has indicated that the percentage
of smokers consuming tobacco from a duty free source ranges from below 1% in the US,
Canada and Australia, and up to 3.8% and 5.6% in New Zealand and the UK, respectively
[7-9]. When one extrapolates the number of cigarettes smoked per capita per day from duty
free sources to a global level one can grasp a hold of the loss of tax revenue that
could be provided to support tobacco control efforts or population based health care
coverage and thus the subsequent implications on global public health.

The time has come to discuss the rational behind exemptions for airport advertising
and duty free tobacco sales. Advertising and purchases within international travel
should be governed by universal regulations such as those promoted by the FCTC and
action should be taken towards their implementation at a global level as the tobacco
industry does not recognize borders or boundaries [3,10].

Tobacco Induced Diseasesembraces the need for the collection of basic research on tobacco promotion and advertising
within airports as a means for promoting evidence based advocacy.